Planes of Consciousness
by Neonz
Summary: A devastating glitch in Bluefin Depot leads to a stage collapse and the first two inkling deaths in turf war history. But for these two unlucky victims, death is only the beginning. They quickly discover that they are the only two inklings in an afterlife filled with octolings, and wonder if there's a hidden explanation that the octolings have yet to discover.
1. Chapter 1

Turquoise ink whizzed past the long orange tentacles of an opposing female inkling, splattering on her red vector tee and getting into her slate-grey eyes. The girl gritted her teeth before swiftly abandoning her humanoid form and diving mantle-first into the orange ink that her opponent had carelessly left wide open. She popped out a second later before her turquoise enemy had even turned around, and with a few pumps of her splattershot the threat was gone.

" _C'mon!"_ the orange inkling's map pinged at her. She pressed herself against one of Bluefin Depot's central crates, sparing the turquoise ink-spirit a quick glance as it floated away, and then she gave her own team a moment of her attention. The others were all in the opposite central area, freely turning the concrete orange. The girl rolled her eyes, knowing full well that they were only managing to do so as she was distracting the opposing team in this area all by herself.

 _BANG._ A spray of turquoise ink catapulted to the girl's right. She tucked the map away and cursed quietly as she readied herself to tackle a charger.

" _C'mon! C'mon!"_ A male voice replaced the pinging, realizing he was being ignored. _"Sepha, come over here, it's totally cleared up!"_

"Shut it," the girl hissed through her receiver. "Kind of busy holding up the team over here. And spread out, all of you. You're wasting time being clumped together like that." Honestly, why was she always stuck with the idiotic newbies? She'd had a terrible losing streak in ranked the previous day, losing her A rank and nearly dropping out of her A- to boot. Turf wars were proving to be a refreshing, if still frustrating, substitute. She wore a sporty bobble hat purely for the tenacity ability, and it was sadly paying off. Fortunately wins or losses here didn't matter terribly in the end, especially as she desperately needed the guaranteed coins.

Sepha could hear a roller approaching on her left. She zipped backwards in squid form, praying that the charger wouldn't notice her. She leapt out of her ink and shot down the roller, getting a clean splat before the opposing inkling could do anything to stop her.

 _BANG. BANG._ Sepha stifled a laugh as the charger's ink line fell short twice as its owner failed to fully charge it. She was in a better position now, so she could recognize the weapon as a splatterscope. The dark-skinned boy holding it on top of the overlooking wall (as if _that_ wasn't a predictable location) was visibly shaky in his aim, and Sepha confidently sprayed a neat path in front of herself and zigzagged her way to the edge of the wall. The boy struggled to adjust his aim downward. Sepha smirked. "Go back to the splattershot jr., kid," she teased, locking her aim perfectly onto his shrimp-pink polo –

Her finger froze on the trigger, her entire body paralyzed. A ripple ran through the area, and a second later she gasped in surprise as the world returned back to normal. Sepha had nearly forgotten about the splatterscope, and turned her weapon toward him again. It was hard to read where the boy was looking as he was wearing a pair of tinted shades, but he certainly wasn't looking at her…

Sepha hesitated, then followed his gaze to the other side of the pit divide between the central areas. Two of her team members were still frozen in place, with the third member prodding them with the end of his splat charger. Sepha slipped into her squid form to find safer ground – now wasn't the time to be initiating a fight, but she felt exposed looking at her map so openly. She hid back behind the central crates and pulled out her map. "Hey, come in over there," she hissed. "What's going on?"

" _I-I dunno…"_ the boy muttered. _"They're gone from the map, but they're just frozen in place – wait, they're fading out!"_

Sepha peered over in time to see her two frozen teammates vanish into a puff of orange smoke. She groaned and tucked her map away, knowing this was going to be a hopeless fight. As much as she hated to admit it, even she couldn't pull off a turf war victory by herself against a full team of opponents. She would have to delegate some responsibility to the only other orange inkling. "Alright whatever-your-name-is, listen up - "

Her teammate's location was replaced with a large X, and Sepha sighed as she looked over and saw a turquoise girl neatly replacing their hard-earned orange ink with her slosher. Sepha peered out from behind the crates to gauge if it was safe to take the slosher out herself – the opposing inkling boy with the splatterscope was still loitering on top of the wall, simply watching his teammate work without lifting a tentacle to help. Sepha swam through the ink and straight up the wall – the boy simply turned to her, as if mildly surprised. "W-wait," he pleaded, dropping his weapon. Sepha quirked an eyebrow – she'd never seen anybody do _that_ before. "Something's wrong, I've never seen the server drop only half of the players in the middle of a match without dropping all of them. We should wait until time runs out!" He had a raspy voice that Sepha found annoying. She huffed and took aim.

"Let this be a lesson: _never_ drop your weapon." The boy turned desperately into a squid to evade her, but Sepha easily splatted him back to his base. She took a moment to check her map again – her one teammate had respawned and was heading back to where he was splatted in the first place. As the splatterscope owner had mentioned before, the squid count along the top of the map was indicating each side only had two players. Maybe they still had a shot.

Figuring she should take a few seconds to save her teammate, she inked a path across the edge to the other side. The orange boy was at least keeping a safe distance back as the slosher hunted him down, giving Sepha the perfect opportunity to attack from behind. She sprayed orange ink confidently as she ran over, then turned her weapon on the turquoise girl –

She froze again for a moment, then snapped back to normal. The two inklings in front of her both hesitated, and she focused her aim carefully –

"Wait! Stop!" the voice of the splatterscope boy called from behind her. He had apparently already respawned, to Sepha's annoyance.

Sepha ignored the opposing inkling, figuring she'd take him out immediately after, and fired onto the slosher. Her shots rang out slowly, the entire field lagging horribly. The turquoise girl didn't vanish immediately, so Sepha continued to fire, figuring the game was just being unusually slow. The girl let out a strangled cry, and Sepha finally hesitated.

"You're hurting her!" the boy with the splatterscope argued, leaping down next to Sepha and furrowing his brow. Sepha ceased her fire, worried he might be correct. Getting splatted usually felt uncomfortable and suffocating, but it happened too quickly to be painful. The two of them watched wordlessly as the girl jerked oddly beneath her coating of orange ink, her form fading in and out of transparency and sparks running down her side.

The other orange inkling ran over, his eyes flicking between his teammate and her victim. "What's going - ?!" He froze and vanished in a puff of orange smoke like the others had. Sepha was acutely aware that she was the sole remaining player on the orange side, and took a few uncertain steps backwards. The boy had run to the aid of his teammate, and unsteadily tried to fire some turquoise ink onto her helpless form, but it made no difference.

Sepha pressed herself against the far wall and tried to steady her breathing. Something like this had never happened to her before. She desperately looked at her map and found it was black with a white line of text running across it: _"Connection Error"_. The salty sea breeze had stilled, and Sepha was shocked to see a flock of seagulls enter the battle area only to freeze in place, electricity dancing off of them just as they were the turquoise girl. Sparks began to pop up from the ground as well, and the world trembled beneath her feet.

Sepha ran and grabbed the arm of the turquoise boy. "Come on, we need to get out of here!"

He resisted, his focus still on his teammate. "What about Molly?!"

Sepha sighed and tried to pull her as well, but a sharp jolt of electricity shot up her arm and she recoiled away. She shook her head and took the boy's arm again. "I-it's no good…!" She fired her weapon against the wall leading to the turquoise base, attempting to leave half of it orange and half turquoise for the boy, but her orange ink wasn't sticking over the turquoise that was already there.

She peered around for an alternate route, but the boy swam easily up the wall and then leaned over the side, his arm extended. "Get as far up as you can, then grab my hand!"

Sepha nodded. She had some ink resistance up thanks to her red high tops, but was doubtful it would do her much good on a wall. Still, she leapt in squid form and struggled as hard as she could to swim up. The enemy ink was getting into her eyes and impairing her breathing – she leapt out and grabbed the boy's arm. He grunted and yanked her up; they both fell backwards, panting. "Thanks, I guess." Sepha stood up, looking skeptically down at the boy as he struggled to regain his breath. "My name's Sepha," she offered.

"Mine's Logan…" he breathed, regaining his stance just as the world froze again. The sparks dancing along the ground increased in intensity. A couple of them bounced high enough to sting them in the side, and the boy gave a sharp cry. Sepha gestured onward. "Hurry up!"

"Okay, okay!" Logan replied, his voice high with fear. The ground shook more violently, and both of them were knocked to the ground. Sepha groaned, disoriented from the fall. She could hear Logan whimpering: "oh no… oh gods, no…"

Sepha looked over. He was covering his head with his hands and hadn't stood up, his splatterscope splayed uselessly beside him. Sepha wasn't sure if she could stand either; the ground had started shaking continuously. Frightened, she looked off the edge of the wall and her stomach plummeted. The floor of the stage had started to collapse, leaving behind nothing but darkness. Sepha half dove, half crawled toward Logan, the shaking and turquoise ink making it impossible to walk. "Get up kid, _get up!"_

He shook his head rapidly, his eyes tightly closed. The surrounding area was falling apart, leaving them nowhere to run regardless. Sepha took one last pained look at the destroyed landscape before bowing her head, accepting her fate.

Her world went black.


	2. Chapter 2

***A/N incoming:**

 **Hi there! If you're reading this, then thank you very much for showing enough interest to carry on to the second chapter. I've been working on this fic for the last three months (basically since I first got the game, ha), so updates should be decently consistent. Expect chapter lengths of 1500-2500 words (I personally don't like reading a lot at once, so I try to keep my chapters shorter).** **My goal with this fic was to develop my ability to create and use OCs, since I pretty much never do that to any great extent.**

 **Thank you Kooliana for being the first to review! I do like my cliffhangers.** **I do take the time to respond to longer reviews and take all input into consideration. I don't usually bother holding up those that actually read author's notes, so don't expect them very often. That being said, let's get to it!**

…

"…a…"

"…eph…a…"

Sepha blearily opened her eyes, wincing as blinding light assaulted her senses. Her head pounded and she dizzily put one hand against her forehead with a groan.

"Sepha!"

Sepha turned her head at the sound of her name, squinting into the sea-green eyes of an inkling boy. He was wearing his tinted shades on top of his turquoise head. It took Sepha a few moments to remember why she recognized him, and once she had everything rushed back at once. She scrambled to a standing position, but felt lightheaded and nearly toppled over again. Logan caught her by her shoulders and gently steadied her. Sepha swatted him away and sunk to her knees as she stared off the wall at the perfectly-normal setting of Bluefin Depot. Seagulls soared overhead, and the gentle sound of rushing waves overlapped neatly with the scent of salt water. "What… what's going on…?"

Logan circled in front of her, frowning. "I don't know. It's like nothing even happened." Sepha stared at him quietly, silently urging him to elaborate. "Everything went dark," he continued, "I felt like I was falling for a long time, then I landed kind of hard. When I opened my eyes, everything looked like this:" he gestured around, "normal. Are you okay, though?" His eyes shone with concern. "I couldn't get you to wake up for a couple of minutes. I think you whacked your head on the guardrail when we fell."

Sepha looked at the metal rail that protected the edge of the wall and rubbed her head with a grimace. It sure felt like that was what happened. But if they fell, then why were they still in Bluefin Depot…? "I'm fine." She didn't want to validate his concern by failing to stand up again, so she stayed on her knees and pulled out her map. It was still displaying the _"Connection Error"_ text. She glanced around and was relieved to find her splattershot next to the guardrail where she had apparently landed. It looked unharmed. She picked it up and attached it back to her ink supply. "Do you have your splatterscope?"

Logan nodded and walked a few steps to go pick it up. He imitated Sepha and attached his weapon to the ink tank on his back. "Not that I'm any good with it…" he muttered. "This was my first time trying to use a charger. It's way harder than it looks."

"We'll swap weapons if we have to," Sepha said. Though she hoped they'd have no reason to use them, the situation was eerie enough to put them both on high alert. "You can at least use a splattershot, right?"

"Of course," Logan huffed. "You know how to use a splatterscope?"

Sepha shrugged. "I've never owned a charger, but I've practiced plenty in the store."

"Why only practice? Why not just buy one?"

Usually Sepha got questioned on her weapon choice with a lot more judgement, so even though she could hear the genuine curiosity in his voice, she felt defensive responding. "I just can't afford a new weapon right now, okay?" she bit back, avoiding his gaze. "My family needs my winnings more than I do."

"I'm sorry," Logan offered with a frown. "I meant it as a genuine question, honest!"

Sepha didn't bother responding. She carefully tried to stand up, but winced and put a hand to her head again. "Ugh… Come on, we need to get out of here."

"You might have a concussion," Logan suggested, his eyes wide. "Take it easy - "

"I'm fine, okay kid?!" Sepha growled, raising her splattershot to mark an easy path in front of them. She ignored her mild dizziness, refusing to prove Logan right. "Follow me, and don't you dare catch me in your fire."

"O-okay!"

The two made their way to the turquoise spawn point – or, what used to be the turquoise spawn point. The circle wasn't marked as either colour. Sepha arrived first, and gave the area a quick once-over before Logan had managed to ink his way over with his poor splatterscope skills. She stepped onto the metal circle, but nothing happened. The spawn point was where every inkling started from, respawned from, and, at the end of the match, exited from. Sepha had no clue how they were meant to leave if the spawn point wasn't working. Wondering if the problem was because she was orange and the spawn point used to be turquoise, she closed her eyes to shift her tentacle colour.

Sepha noticed first that the spawn point still wasn't working – she realized with a start a few moments later that her long tentacles were still orange.

"I've never seen a spawn point without ink on it before," Logan said. Sepha didn't bother telling him that he was stating the obvious.

"I can't change colours," Sepha said with a frustrated sigh. "I'm stuck orange."

Logan blinked at her. "Huh? Really?" He closed his eyes, then opened them a few moments later and looked at Sepha expectantly. "I can't see my tentacles without a mirror. Still turquoise?"

"Still turquoise," Sepha affirmed. "Must be because the turf war never officially ended, so the colour-lock is still on. Step on the spawn point, see if you can get it to work."

Logan obediently stood on the metal marker, but nothing happened. His eyes were wide now, filled with fear. "What do we do now?!"

Sepha tried to answer his question: she inked the spawn point orange, made Logan spray it turquoise, led them all the way over to the other side to see if there was any difference, and then gave up and sat down on the overhang looking out to the middle section. The ocean waves lapped around them, taunting them with the knowledge that there was literally no other way off of this particular map. If the colour-lock was still on, Sepha imagined the water-dissolve rule was still in effect… and if the spawn point wasn't working properly, that meant swimming wasn't something they could even attempt. "The officials must know we're missing," Sepha tried to reason, mostly to herself. "Even if they don't, Bluefin Depot is bound to come up again sooner rather than later…" Logan sat quietly behind her, occupying himself by playing with the zoom lens on his splatterscope.

They waited together for nearly an hour without saying a word. Sepha knew that they still had a ways to go until the four hour rotation would give them the possibility of freedom, but even then it would be just that: a possibility. They could be stuck for days, though she didn't want to voice her fears. She knew Logan had to be fully aware of this already, and she wasn't going to be the first to break down.

A faint whirring sound started above them, and both of the young inklings quickly stood up. To their relief and excitement, the spawn point was turning a light shade of green. This was the best case scenario in Sepha's opinion – neither turquoise nor orange was ever paired off against lime green, so they should stick out as an oddity rather than an opponent. "Finally," Sepha breathed.

"If I never come back to Bluefin Depot," Logan said, eying Sepha, "it'd be too soon."

"It was just a glitch," Sepha huffed. "And this is all gonna be over now, so just keep your weapon low and we can get out of here."

Green inklings began to materialize on the spawn point, but they took off directly from it instead of waiting for the signal to go. Sepha noticed that they were all adults – older than the typical age where turf wars were played. Only one, the leading male wearing a navy captain's hat, was carrying an actual weapon – a splattershot jr. The rest were armed with toolboxes, radios, and a large metal rod that Sepha didn't know the purpose of. Another round of four green adult inklings spawned shortly behind them, two of which were carrying large news cameras. Sepha didn't care about the crowd's oddities – all she cared about was getting out of Bluefin Depot. "Hey!" she called, waving as they rushed down the middle of the map.

"We got stuck here after the game crashed," Logan added. "Can you help us?"

The crowd of adults ignored them and hurried past. The lead inkling veered slightly to the left, nearly bumping into Sepha as he raised his splattershot jr. and inked a small pool off the edge of the overhang. The others turned into squids to leap harmlessly into the ink. "Didn't you hear us?" Sepha asked, reaching out to grab the sleeve of an inkling man who was lagging behind to bark something into his radio.

Her hand went straight through him. "What?!" Sepha flinched away. Logan stared at her with wide eyes, then reached out to touch the arm of an inkling woman carrying a news camera – just as Sepha's had, Logan's arm went through her, as if the woman was merely a hologram.

"They're… not real?" Logan guessed, staring as the adults began gathering in the center-left sector of the map.

Sepha knelt down next to a splatter of green ink that the splattershot jr. had left on the top of the overhang. She dipped a finger into the ink. It stuck to her hand and Sepha quickly shook it off. "No, the ink was real." She furrowed her brow at the crowd of green inklings beneath them. Their only way out of this situation was slipping out of their grasp. "…This isn't good…"


	3. Chapter 3

Sepha and Logan helplessly watched the green adults work, unable to get their attention. An idea came to Sepha, if only to confirm the worst-case scenario.

"Hey," she said, turning to Logan. "Try hitting them with your charger. See if anything happens."

"Wh-what?! I don't want to shoot the people who could help us!"

Sepha gave the boy an irritated sigh and raised her own weapon. "Fine, then. I'll go down myself." She shot an orange spot off the overhang next to the green ink and leapt into it.

"Hey, wait!" Logan shouted after her. Sepha ignored him and turned her weapon on the group of older inklings.

She pummeled a few rounds of ink out – it went straight through all of the people gathered in a circle and made a puddle on the ground beneath them. They didn't seem to notice, instead talking to each other in low, hurried voices. Logan appeared next to her, panting. "You shouldn't have done that…"

"Do what?" Sepha growled at him. "It didn't do anything! It's like they aren't even - !"

"Right there!" an inkling man shouted to the others, "The sensor's reacting!"

"What are they doing?" Logan asked, blinking at the group of green inklings. Sepha shrugged a response. The older inklings were now hurriedly probing a spot in the middle of the section with their huge variety of tools. The camera crew circled around, adding even more curiosity for the two younger inklings watching.

Several minutes passed. Sepha and Logan watched wordlessly from a short distance away as the adults became louder and more frantic in their attempts. They barked orders at each other and placed the large metal pole upright in the middle of the stage. Electric currents ran through the pole, and a small area of the ground collapsed – just as it had for them before, but on a much tinier scale. The filming inklings kept a safe distance back as the maintenance crew leaned carefully into the hole. "There's one here! We're found somebody!" a man announced excitedly, and his coworkers gathered around, unintentionally blocking the view for the cameras and causing the media to shift frantically around to get a good view.

"Found somebody…?" Sepha muttered, her attention piqued. "In the hole?"

"Look!" Logan urged, his eyes wide. Two inklings lugged out a third from the hole – the turquoise girl with the slosher that Sepha had shot down before the stage had collapsed. "It's Molly!" Logan exclaimed, recognizing his teammate. Her body was frozen stiff, with sparks dancing off her orange-stained body. Her slosher was clutched in immobile hands and her expression was one of fear…

Sepha winced watching her, but couldn't tear her eyes away. She couldn't tell if the girl was even alive or not, and the guilt of having done this to another inkling was horrible. She should have listened to Logan when he warned her not to fire…!

"Get the scanner on her, quickly! She's gone into a forced-crash state!" Most of the team worked efficiently, with one inkling trying to shoo off the curious camera crew. Sepha had no idea what they were doing – a lot of orders were made, a lot of tools were tossed around, and what felt like an eternity passed by – but the sparks dancing around Molly slowly dissipated, and her frozen arms fell limp to her sides. There were a few moments of tense silence, then her eyes blinked rapidly and she gasped, coughing desperately to clear out her airway.

The green inklings cheered at their success, but the first responders took over and whisked her onto an expandable stretcher. "Get an oxygen mask on her – going to need urgent medical attention – lucky to have survived…" They took off into the sky, presumably super jumping over to the spawn point to exit. Sepha grimaced and looked away. She had caused this…

"Any more readings?" one of the remaining inklings asked his comrade, who had pulled out a map.

"Nothing…" He shook his head and tucked his map away. "We're absolutely sure that this match was a standard four vs. four?"

"Yes, we're positive. There are still two inklings that are unaccounted for. One from each side." The man sighed and shook his head. "No, there's absolutely nobody else here… I… I can't believe this is happening… Those poor kids…"

Sepha and Logan watched as the group started spreading around the map. "Well, _we're_ here…" Sepha grumbled, stalking away to watch them scour the area from the ledge's good view. "Who are those people? Are they in charge of turf wars or something?"

"Beats me…" Logan replied quietly. "Do you think Molly's gonna be okay?"

Sepha glanced over. "I dunno. Did you know her or something?"

Logan shook his head. "No, it's just scary what happened to her."

"Yeah?!" Sepha snapped. Logan flinched at her tone. "Almost as scary as what's happening to _us?_ Wake up, kid – there's a major glitch with the game and they can't even detect us now. We're stuck here until they figure it out. Who knows how long that'll take?"

"I…"

"Look, I'm sorry about what happened to your friend, okay?!" Sepha continued, her frustration boiling over into her tone. "But we kind of have our own issues to sort through right now."

"Sepha," Logan said carefully, his voice strained as he tried to remain patient. "I'm not sure this is a glitch with the game…"

"What the heck are you talking about?" Sepha demanded. "Do you know something?!"

"I think maybe… maybe w-we're - "

A faint whirring started up again, and both of their heads shot to the spawn point. Sepha was expecting the paramedics to be back sans-Molly, but her jaw dropped when instead four female octolings stepped off the point. They were shortly followed by four more, and then another four more. Their odd spiralling red tentacles surged off their heads, making them easily recognizable even to Sepha, who had never seen octolings outside of history books. All of them wore metallic darkened goggles, completely shielding their eyes, and all of them carried the same weapon. From Sepha's perspective it looked similar in shape and size to her splattershot, but the colours were much duller. She suspected it would fire in a similar way.

"Are… are those octolings?" Logan asked, staring at them.

"What else would they be?" Sepha rolled her eyes. "Just look at them!"

"But what are they doing here?! I've never seen an octoling anywhere in Inkopolis – they were all banished from inkling territory after the great turf war one hundred years ago."

"You're a history buff, are you?" Sepha raised her weapon. "Prepare your weapon. This could get ugly." Logan obediently slung his splatterscope over his shoulder, and the two stared at the twelve octolings as they all made a beeline for the edge opposite to where Sepha and Logan were standing.

"Hmph…" one of the octolings muttered, stretching her arms upward with a yawn. Unlike the others, she had black tentacles decorated with strings of green seaweed. "Looks normal to me." Her voice was loud enough to carry over to where Sepha and Logan were standing. "Just ink it over again so we can get a better look. Get to work, all of you."

Ten of the octolings muttered to each other and started covering the ground with magenta ink. Sepha watched the weapon curiously – it was practically identical to her splattershot other than the design. The eleventh octoling – her red tentacles notably darker than her companions' - lagged behind, watching the commanding inkling through her dark goggles with a frown. "Let's move closer," Sepha suggested. "I want to hear what they're talking about."

"Closer…?!" Logan asked incredulously, but Sepha had already started moving.

"Nobody can see us, remember?" Sepha shrugged with her back turned to Logan. "What's the big deal?"

"I-I guess…"

The two slunk closer. Both kept their weapons raised, though there was no real danger. The instinct to drive the opposing species out of their territory was coursing through Sepha's body. There would be a full-on war once the green inklings caught wind of these octolings. She knew there would be nothing she could do to help if her ink couldn't touch them, but the mere presence of an octoling had her on high alert. Logan was tense as well, his weapon pointed firmly toward the two octolings even though they wouldn't be able to hurt him. They eavesdropped openly, figuring hiding would be pointless.

"…going to shut down turf wars. We're going to lose Bluefin Depot," the octoling without kelp said, her voice weighed down with bitter sadness. She looked away from her superior, shaking her head, her eyes unreadable from behind thick black lenses.

"We don't know that for sure," the kelp-octoling replied calmly. "Those rumours are unconfirmed." She gestured to the green inklings on the other side of the map. "Go confirm them and then we can worry about it."

"Topi, this is serious!" the other octoling snarled back. "A crash this terrible has never happened in the history of turf wars. Two inklings _died_ – the first ever deaths! This place isn't safe."

Topi furrowed her brow at the girl. "Then we will go down with our home. A leader isn't afraid to take risks, Cirrina. Isn't it about time you learned that?"

Cirrina scowled at the other octoling. "You've never had to take a true risk in your entire reign. What would you know? You just don't know what we'll do when we lose this place. Unlike you, I'm willing to find out."

"Cirrina…" The kelp octoling scowled after her underling, but didn't make a move to stop Cirrina as she broke away and furiously made her way to the center overhang – right where Sepha and Logan were hiding out. Sepha didn't bother moving out of the way, knowing that the octoling would walk straight through her anyways –

The octoling collided with Sepha, who tumbled over and just barely managed to stop herself from falling off the overhang. Cirrina the octoling, splayed next to Sepha, looked equally dazed, but clamoured to her feet and warily pointed her weapon at her. Logan stepped forward, his splatterscope aimed directly on the octoling. He frowned and stole a quick look at Sepha as she stood up and aimed her splattershot at the same target. Sepha could feel her head swimming from the collision; her ears rang and her balance wasn't perfect, but she knew she couldn't show any weakness in front of the enemy.

"You can see me?" the octoling asked, her voice quiet as if she were talking to herself. She shifted her silver shooter continuously between Sepha and Logan.

"Obviously," Sepha retorted, itching to pull the trigger. "You're outnumbered. Drop your weapon, octoling."

The octoling sneered at them. "Oh please…" She lowered her weapon and raised her free hand to the sky. She snapped her finger one time, and all eleven octolings super jumped to her location. Sepha gritted her teeth and took an automatic step backwards. The octolings emotionlessly held their weapons at Sepha and Logan. Cirrina smirked victoriously. "Who's outnumbered now, inkling?"


	4. Chapter 4

The octolings all positioned their weapons in Sepha and Logan's direction, but after only a few moments hesitantly lowered them and glanced around in confusion. Sepha couldn't imagine why; if the situation had been reversed, she would have splatted the octolings on first sight.

"Cirrina, what is the meaning of this?" the black octoling asked, her voice clear and commanding. The other octolings surrounding her winced and looked away.

"Oh, nothing much Topi," Cirrina answered, her hands on her hips. She took a few steps backwards in Sepha's direction, then suddenly rounded on her and grabbed Sepha's right arm, yanking it into the air. Frantic whispers filled the air, several pairs of wide eyes staring uncertainly at them. "Just found something a bit… _out of the ordinary."_

Her voice was taunting to Sepha, who squirmed against her grasp, desperate to free herself. "Let go of me, you stupid octo-scum!" Sepha yelled, her splattershot still clutched in her free arm. Logan kept his splatterscope nervously pointed at Cirrina, his eyes darting from Sepha to the rest of the octoling army.

"You can touch this inkling?" Topi asked, swiftly stepping forward. The octolings, bar Cirrina, bowed respectively as she passed them. She stood in front of Sepha for a few moments, studying her wordlessly, then ran a hand across Sepha's face. Sepha resisted the urge to bite her as the octoling's hand passed under her chin. Topi paused for another moment, then looked at Logan. "This one as well?"

Logan tensed and turned his splatterscope on Topi, effectively answering her question. Topi pointed her own weapon at Logan, frowning. "Drop your weapon."

"Remember what I told you, kid!" Sepha called. Cirrina growled and jabbed her shooter against Sepha's side, causing her to wince and quiet.

Logan hesitated, his eyes darting frantically between Sepha and Topi. He did not drop his weapon, much to Sepha's relief. Topi held her stare, her expression hard to read from behind her goggles. "Fine." She shifted her weapon so that the tip was resting against Sepha's head, but kept her serious gaze fixed on Logan. "Drop your weapon."

Sepha tried to wriggle free again, so Cirrina grabbed her long right tentacle and yanked her closer.

"Don't even think about turning into your squid form," Cirrina whispered into her ear. She added her own shooter next to Topi's. The cold metal of the two guns pressed into Sepha's already aching head. "This entire squadron will open fire, and there's no such thing as respawning where we are."

"Well?" Topi asked Logan, impatience in her tone. "What's it going to be, inkling?" Sepha couldn't move with the octoling grabbing her tentacle, but the octolings' threats held her in place regardless. Sepha could see Logan studying Topi's gun closely, and with a start she realized what he was looking at. If he were to move slightly to the right, Topi and Cirrina's shooters would be perfectly lined up. A good charger would be able to disarm both of them with a single shot. Sepha stared at Logan incredulously, preparing herself to run, but she could see the doubt in his eyes.

Logan threw his splatterscope to the ground and two octolings immediately grabbed him, with a third confiscating his charger. Topi lowered her weapon with a relieved sigh. "There's a good boy." Logan shook his head and stared at the ground.

With the threat of Logan's splatterscope gone, two more octolings came to Sepha and tore her splattershot out of her hands. She felt the tips of two shooters leave the side of her head, and Cirrina released her by shoving her away. Sepha sunk to the ground, her head still swimming and her heart pounding in her ears.

"Get up."

Sepha blearily tried to comply, but stumbled. Somebody grabbed her arm and hauled her to a standing position. She closed her eyes, feeling weak and dizzy.

"She's disarmed and injured!" Logan's voice called. "Leave her alone!" Sepha opened her eyes again, watching the other inkling glare furiously at the octolings. "Please, we're no threat to you. We're scared and we have no idea what's going on… The game crashed, and now…"

Topi approached Logan and pressed her shooter against his forehead. Logan winced and closed his eyes, the two octoling grunts on either side of him preventing him from fleeing. "Inkling…" Topi smiled and lowered her weapon. "I would never have pulled the trigger. I simply needed you and your friend to drop your weapons before we could speak civilly. I was worried your inkling sport of turf wars may have desensitized you to their inherent dangers."

"A gun against your head does wonders for making enemies comply," Cirrina's mocking voice spoke directly into Sepha's right ear. Sepha tried to recoil away, but was held in place. "Doesn't it, inkling?"

Sepha tensed, scowling. The frustration of being unable to rebel was crushing her. "If I had my splattershot," Sepha hissed, "maybe I could test the theory."

"Leave her be, Cirrina," Topi instructed with a sharp glare. "This boy is right; she doesn't look well." Cirrina quieted and gave a reluctant nod.

"I-I'm fine…" Sepha argued stubbornly. "Just… just tell us what's going on. Where are we?"

"You haven't figured it out yet?" Cirrina asked as if the answer should be obvious.

Topi stepped forward. "Cirrina, break it to them gently - "

"You're dead," Cirrina said, smirking. "We all are. We can wander the world as we please, but can't touch anything that's alive… kind of like a ghost, hmm?"

"What?" Sepha asked, glancing at the other octolings. They didn't seem to be joking. She noticed Logan nodding quietly, and turned to him. "That can't be true."

"Sepha, nobody could have survived that crash. I've never seen anything like it," Logan said sadly. "I kind of figured…"

"What about that girl?" Sepha asked, thinking back to the slosher. "Molly survived."

"I-I don't know - "

The green inklings circled around to where they were standing, heading for the spawn point. Sepha could see a few of their faces – horror was etched into their expressions; some were even tear-streaked. They didn't acknowledge the octolings and a few even ran straight through them.

"Come," Topi said. As she turned toward the spawn point, the octolings turned with her. "We may be stuck here permanently if we don't leave before those inklings. We'll continue this discussion later."

"Yes commander," a few of the octolings called. They began following the inklings up the grated ramp, two of them dragging Logan along with them.

Cirrina tugged Sepha's arm so hard that she nearly fell over again. "Come on, you stupid girl," Cirrina snarled. Sepha panted, staring at the octoling with hatred. "Not so high and mighty now, are you squidy?"

"It's a good thing you disarmed me, you coward," Sepha retorted.

"Cirrina," Topi swiftly approached. Cirrina winced and bowed hastily. "Take over leading our squadron home, please. I will personally watch this inkling."

"…Yes, Topi." Cirrina gave Sepha one last glare before running ahead and barking orders at her comrades.

"Forgive her, she's not normally like this, but as of late…" Topi shook her head and stole a quick glance backwards before moving her goggles to the top of her head, revealing amber eyes. Topi stared directly into Sepha's eyes for a few moments; Sepha shifted uncomfortably. "Yes, I'm no inkling doctor, but by octoling standards it looks like you have a concussion." She surveyed Sepha sadly for a few moments. "You poor thing…" she mumbled. Sepha quirked a brow. Topi replaced her goggles. "Come. I'll bring you and your friend in for medical attention. We're going to have to do this as quietly as possible."

As they approached the spawn point where the others were waiting, Topi broke off from Sepha. Another octoling moved to replace her as guard, but Topi stopped her. "There's no need. She has no choice but to follow us." She shifted her gaze to Logan. "Him as well. Let them stand together."

"Are you crazy?" Cirrina snapped. "Don't put them together!"

"Silence," Topi growled. The two octolings holding Logan hesitantly let him go, and he hurriedly went to stand by Sepha. "We can't be seen in Inkopolis strutting around with two inklings. That would cause widespread panic. They need to walk on their own in order to blend in with the inklings that are alive." She surveyed Logan and Sepha. "Don't get separated from us and speak to nobody, save for each other. I guarantee you will not make it on your own out there. There are no other inklings here, and the other octoling squadrons will not be so gracious."

"No other inklings…?" Logan muttered, glancing at Sepha.

"We're already dead, aren't we?" Sepha asked, her gaze focused on the octoling leader. "What's the worst that could happen to us?"

"Oh, don't worry," Cirrina said, grinning. "You can die more than once. Little known fact to those who have never died before, I suppose…"

"So stay close," Topi repeated. "I will not warn you again. We will not chase after you if you choose to put yourselves in harm's way."

Logan glanced at Sepha. "What do we do?" he whispered.

Sepha imagined her head would be hurting even without her injury with all of this confusing information coming into it. She rubbed the spot between her eyes and groaned. "If what they're telling us is the truth, then we have no choice." They were disarmed and in a world that they knew nothing about. "We need to follow them."

They continued up the last few steps and followed the octolings through the spawn point. They first watched Cirrina and six other octolings crowd onto the spawn point along with four green inklings, and once they vanished, Topi ushered the rest of them on to vanish with the next set of four inklings. Sepha took one last look at Bluefin Depot, and figured anything had to be better than being trapped here alone forever.

A bright flash of green light, and they were gone.


	5. Chapter 5

They teleported to the spawn hub for Bluefin Depot, and the octolings quickly ushered them out. Sepha and Logan hurriedly followed the octoling troop as they filed through Inkopolis Tower. Sepha took note of how empty the usually bustling building was. She quickly discovered where all of the inklings had gone when they took their first few steps outside.

"Whoa…" Logan gasped. The streets of Inkopolis were packed with idling young inklings. Most of them were huddled in small groups, chatting anxiously to each other. "Sepha, look!"

Logan gestured across the way, where a few octolings were also milling about. The more Sepha looked around, the more octolings she saw. There had to be hundreds of them. "This whole time, we were being watched by octoling ghosts…?" Sepha muttered with a scoff. "Why don't they just go back to their sewers or whatever?"

"They actually live in spheres connected by - "

"Alright, alright," Sepha cut him off. "You did your homework, got it, good job."

They weaved their way through the crowd, automatically squeezing around the other inklings without thinking too hard about how they could technically just walk through them. The octolings were harder to avoid, since as far as octolings were concerned, inklings weren't obstacles at all. The pair did their best to subtly dodge out of the way before any octolings could get too close to them.

Static filled the air, and Topi halted the troop. The inklings and octolings alike looked curiously up at the giant television that overlooked Inkopolis, and the familiar faces of Callie and Marie popped onto the screen. Sepha had grown to dislike the pop idols purely on account of them interrupting her games merely to announce the stage rotations. She folded her arms and watched them intently anyways along with everybody else.

Callie and Marie frowned and eyed each other before speaking. "We've received some news regarding the status of Bluefin Depot!" Callie said, her cheerfulness sounding more forced than ever.

The inklings began muttering to each other. Sepha's interest was piqued. "As you know," Marie continued carefully, "there was a server crash earlier today during a turf war match on Bluefin Depot. The cause is still unknown, but new information suggests that it may be linked to a power failure."

"Power failures are the worst!" Callie exclaimed. "How are you supposed to see ink in the dark?!"

"…Callie, Bluefin Depot is outside, remember?"

"Just get on with it…" Sepha muttered.

"Anyways…" Callie continued, the lack of usual laughter from the giant crowd prompting her onward. "Of the eight players involved in the turf war at the time, the server successfully dropped five of them! Previously there were still three inklings unaccounted for, but we're happy to say that one of them has been successfully rescued! We have been told she's in stable condition at the Inkopolis Hospital – isn't that totally great, everyone?"

The crowd of inklings began a round of applause in appreciation at the news, so the squid sisters hesitated to let the noise subside. "However…" Marie continued grimly. "There was no trace of the remaining two inklings. The officials believe it is still too early to label them as MIA, but - "

The inklings began chatting so furiously at this news that Sepha couldn't make out what Marie was saying anymore.

"MIA? Missing in Action?"

"No squid has been labeled MIA since the great turf wars!"

"How could they die during a turf war? There's no real danger… is there?"

Callie and Marie paused for a few moments, eying each other worriedly. "Um…" Callie said. "We will continue to update you guys with information as we receive it!"

"Until the cause has been identified," Marie continued, "and the two missing squids rescued, turf wars and ranked battles will be shut down indefinitely."

The crowd roared even louder in protest at this news. Callie and Marie left the television screen as angry inklings cried after them.

" _Everything's_ shut down?! That's totally unnecessary!"

"I was just about to reach S rank! …For real this time!"

"All because the officials can't find two inklings? Bluefin Depot is seriously lacking in hiding places, so what gives?"

The octoling troop quietly gestured for Sepha and Logan to continue following, so they began moving again. Logan stared at the ground with his brow furrowed in concentration – two times Sepha had to pull him out of the way of oncoming octolings. "What are you doing?" Sepha snapped after the second time. "Pay attention!"

"I-I…" Logan winced and looked away. "I was just thinking about my mom…" he mumbled, his voice heavy with grief. He looked as if he wanted to say something else, but shakily sighed and stared at the ground instead, his arms folded across his chest.

Her family… Sepha would never speak to them again, never embrace them. It hadn't quite sunk in, but seeing Logan so shaken up forced her to contemplate the topic. Would they be alright without her…? Her little sister Ika – the second oldest in the family behind Sepha – would nearly be of turf war age now. Sepha wouldn't be there to show her how to position her gun, how to best hide in ink to ambush opponents, where the most dangerous spots were on the maps…

Sepha shook her head. Ika was smart – she would figure it out. She would step up and take care of their parents, of their little siblings. She _had_ to – just as Sepha had two years ago. Ika wouldn't let their family starve. Sepha clung to this idea and repeated it over and over in her mind, willing herself to stay calm at least until they were somewhere quiet.

Logan avoided eye contact and Sepha begrudgingly but subtly continued to prompt him out of the way of other octolings. Topi and the others were several lengths away, purposefully not allowing Sepha and Logan to get too obviously close to them. Sepha wondered where they were being led – they were heading out of the busy central area and into back alleys that Sepha had never traversed.

"I didn't think there was anything back here…" Logan whispered.

Sepha glanced at him. "There isn't. Not that I know, anyways."

Topi halted the group and silently pointed a finger at the ground – the octoling group collectively turned a shade of cobalt blue, save Topi who was still black, and Cirrina who was navy. The darker pair were at the very front of the group, and Sepha and Logan curiously tried to see what was going on.

One of the now-cobalt octolings at the back turned wide eyes on the pair of inklings. She put a finger to her lips and made a shooing motion. Logan took a few cautious steps backwards, but Sepha hesitated. The sound of a creaky door opening prompted Sepha to retreat back to where Logan was hidden behind a corner wall of the alley. The both peeked around the corner, noting a few red octolings appearing in the doorway of an abandoned house. Wooden boards blocked off the windows, which Sepha thought was rather pointless considering the door was missing.

"We are seeking shelter for the night," Topi said, her voice clear and direct. The red octolings hesitated, eying the group warily. They were clearly outnumbered by the blue octolings.

"You heard her," Cirrina added haughtily. "Clear out, all of you."

"Why here?" one of the red octolings asked, her voice shaky. "You're the Bluefin Depot group, aren't you? We heard the news, I'm sure any other troop would - "

"We have our reasons," Topi growled. "Take shelter in our territory if you must, but you won't be sleeping here tonight.

The red octolings eyed each other, then hastily bowed and began to retreat. The cobalt octoling that had warned Sepha and Logan earlier hastily shifted herself so that she was in front of the inklings. "Turn into squids," she whispered. The pair complied, their smaller forms easier to conceal, and the red octolings walked straight past them.

As soon as they were gone, the octoling squad shifted back to their usual red hues. The octoling who had shielded Sepha and Logan backed away. She winked at them as they transformed back and gave a thumbs-up.

"This place is terrible," Cirrina muttered. Sepha stepped forward to see for herself. It looked like an abandoned apartment. The windows that weren't boarded in were smashed and the walls were littered with graffiti. Sepha had no idea this place existed within Inkopolis – she'd never ventured this far into the alleyways. She imagined few squids ever would.

"Exactly," Topi replied, turning to her squad. "Nobody will come here, save the desperate."

"Which we've cleared out," Cirrina added with a smirk.

"It should be safe for our two inklings guests…" Topi blinked at them. "I don't believe you gave us your names?"

"Um, I'm Logan," Logan offered meekly.

The octolings stared expectantly at Sepha. She sighed. "…Sepha."

Topi thrusted a thumb backwards at the building. "Wait in there. It's too small for our whole troop - "

"Not to mention completely unacceptable - "

"Cirrina, please," Topi continued. "I will talk to Irid about staying in the Kelp Dome for the time being." The octolings began whispering to each other. "But I don't want them to know about the inklings, so they will have to stay here instead."

Sepha eyed the building, which was practically falling apart. "…Great."

"Cirrina," Topi turned to her. "Please go alert Amphi and have him come here. I want his opinion on the inklings, and he should have a look at Sepha for injuries."

Cirrina hesitated. "Do you want me to take the kids…?"

Topi glanced back at the building, and then at the inklings. "…Yes, I suppose you'd better. Just stay somewhere safe – don't follow me."

Cirrina furrowed her brow. "If you're going to see Irid, I should be there."

"No, you are needed elsewhere."

"I'm second-in-command!"

"Which is why I need you to do this for me." Topi hesitated for a few moments. "Although, I'll need somebody to watch the inklings here until Amphi arrives…"

"I'll do it!" The octoling who had shielded Sepha and Logan earlier jabbed her arm into the air. "Me! Me!"

"…Fine. Mimi, just keep an eye on them. I expect them to still be in one piece when we return," Topi warned.

"Yes ma'am!" Mimi answered cheerily. "You can count on Mimi!"

"The rest of you – blue formation," the rest of the octolings turned back to their cobalt colour. "Follow me."


End file.
